Report: Vancouver Canucks star forward Elias Pettersson lost large sum of money as result of fraud in Sweden

Away from the ice, it appears that Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson has had a nightmare while purchasing a house in his home country of Sweden.

It's been a tough season on the ice for Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson as he deals with trade rumors.

Pettersson is in the first year of an eight-year contract that sees him earn $11.6 million USD annually, and so far, he hasn't lived up to that deal, registering 30 points (11 goals, 19 assists) in 40 games.

While on the ice, Elias Pettersson is struggling but is slowly picking up the pace, and off the ice, he's been dealing with a very tough situation back home in Sweden.

Elias Pettersson defrauded in Sweden after house purchase

According to Swedish media outlets HockeyNews.se and ST (subscription required), Elias Pettersson has been defrauded out of 2.7 million SEK, which is roughly $353,000 CAD and $245,000 USD, by a real estate broker who is now serving time in jail.

Two years ago, Pettersson found a house in Danderyd, Sweden, which is a suburb of Stockholm, that was listed at 26 million Swedish Krona and paid a down payment of 2.7 million SEK.

However, it was found out that the house needed work to be fixed up and when Elias Pettersson went to cancel the purchase, the seller protested and it went to a district court.

According to the report (Note: the following is translated from Swedish):

"Pettersson paid 2.7 million in down payment to the broker when he decided to buy the house. But it didn't turn out as Pettersson had imagined. The house turned out to have several flaws, which led the NHL star to regret it. The flaws would be very costly for Pettersson. The agent feared that the main building, among other things, would need to be moved or demolished, because the house was larger than the building permit allowed," Linnea Andersson of HockeyNews.se reported.

The district court sided with the Vancouver Canucks forward and allowed the purchase to be canceled. However, Pettersson "never got his down payment back, nor did the seller get the money."

The broker who Elias Pettersson was dealing with had been doing this to other people in Sweden, and according to HockeyNews.se, he was convicted of aggregated fraud and sentenced to six years in prison for cases not related to the Canucks forward.

Pettersson's father, Torbjorn, says that the money is gone and they likely won't ever get it back, adding that they'll now move on and try to forget about this situation.

"The money is gone," Torbjorn Pettersson said. "Just forget about it and move on."